Civil Rights

WGTE interviewed the late Endrene Cole about her experiences in the struggle for Civil Rights in America. She witnessed the riots in Watts and the unrest in Toledo in the 1960s, and shares her memories about the Dorr Street neighborhood before and after the Urban Renewal program that removed this historic neighborhood from existence.

WGTE looks at the history and the legacy of the '60s and '70s through the inspiring life of UT Quarterback Chuck Ealey. Experience the joys and the highs, the electricity and the love, the pains and the sorrows, the perseverance and fight for equality. Take a journey with us, Chuck Ealey and his UT Rocket football team members as we travel from Portsmouth Notre Dame High School in southern Ohio to the University of Toledo and on to the Canadian Football League.

With almost 300 DNA-based exonerations over two decades, there is now plenty of data about the basic things that go wrong in eyewitness identifications, in suspect interrogations, and in forensic science. The science concerning these issues is rigorous, well documented, and replicated, says David Harris, the leading national authority on racial profiling.

Yet, with the exception of DNA, law enforcement has not embraced this science. Most often, it has actively resisted science. Harris’s lecture explored why.

Support for Knowledge Stream is provided, in part, by a generous gift from The Appold Family Charitable Trust.

Feminism today is not one-size-fits-all. Diverse and competing conceptions of feminist theory exist, and Sommers added a provocative and conservative voice to the debate. Calling for a hard look at the goals and tactics of feminists to date, she contends that feminism has lost its way — and she explained how to put it back on track.

Bringing prisons out of the shadows and into the public eye was the mission of Prison Awareness Week, that took place at The University of Toledo.

The events were sponsored and planned by the UT School for Interdisciplinary Studies; departments of History, Criminal Justice and Social Work, Philosophy and Religious Studies; UT Inside/Out Prison Exchange Program; Phi Alpha Theta history honor society; UT Libertarians; and UT Program in Law and Social Thought.

The UT efforts were part of a larger coalition, Toledoans for Prison Awareness, whose members include the American Civil Liberties Union (Northwest Ohio chapter), Lucas County Libertarian Party and Move to Amend Toledo.

Support for Knowledge Stream is provided, in part, by a generous gift from The Appold Family Charitable Trust.

Find out more about Ella P. Stewart, the first practicing black pharmacist in the country; LeMaxie Glover, a nationally-recognized sculptor who taught art in the Toledo Public Schools; and Art Tatum, the legendary jazz musician fom Toledo. The program includes recollections from more contemporary African-American Leaders.

John Jones has just been named the Greater Toledo Urban League's new president and chief executive officer. An accountant by training, Jones is also an associate minister of Christian Temple Baptist Church, where his father is the pastor. Mr. Jones will join host Jack Lessenberry to discuss the Greater Toledo Urban League. They will also reflect on the 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Dr. Samir Abu-Absi, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Toledo, has recently authored the book Arab Americans in Toledo, a highly-praised chronicle of Toledo's Arab American experience. He will be joined by Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, retired thoracic-cardiovascular surgeon, columnist for The Blade and the author of Treading a Fine Line: A collection of Opinion Columns with Readers' Comments.

Host Jack Lessenberry welcomes leaders of Toledo's Jewish community to the show: Rabbi Moshe Saks of Congregation B'nai Israel, the center for Conservative Judaism in the greater Toledo area for 144 years, Rabbi Ed Garsek of the Orthodox Etz Chayim congregation, as well as Rabbi Samuel R. Weinstein of Temple Congregation Shomer Emunim, the center for Reform Judaism in the Toledo area.

For weeks, much of the news has been dominated by arguments over the so-called "ground zero mosque," an Islamic Center proposed near the World Trade Center site. And there was overwhelming reaction to an obscure Florida pastor's threat to burn copies of the Koran on September 11. Many Americans are uncertain about what most Muslims believe. This week, Dr. S. Amjad Hussain and Dr. Fatima Agha Al-Hayani, two distinguished community leaders join host Jack Lessenberry to discuss the disturbing rise in anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States.